Troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are bringing home a new kind of injury.
Improved training for combat paramedics and the availability of Kevlar body armour mean that just 1 in 16 wounded US soldiers now dies from their injuries, compared with 1 in 3 during the Vietnam war. But the soldiers surviving attacks often have unfamiliar wounds, such as loss of consciousness or memory caused by the shock waves from massive roadside bombs. Since little is known about the long-term effects of such concussions, the US government has started screening returning soldiers for “mild traumatic brain injury”.
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